Mercedes Benz Formula One race car driver Lewis Hamilton has been accused by his teammate Nico Rosenberg of intentionally driving slowly and thereby compromising the German's chances of winning the Chinese Grand Prix on Sunday.
Rosenberg made these comments during a press conference after the race. According to him, Hamilton was driving slowly at the beginning of each stint, "which meant that Sebastian [Vettel] closed up on me and that opened up the chance for him to try and pass me with an early pit stop," Rosenberg said.
"It was unnecessary and cost me a lot of race time as a result and meant that my tyre died at the end, so I am unhappy about it," he added.
But Hamilton denied any wrongdoing, saying, "I wasn't controlling his race, I was controlling my own. My real goal was to manage the tyres and there was no real threat from Nico throughout the whole race."
"It's not my job to look after Nico's race, it's to look after my car and the tyres and bring it home as fast as possible. There was nothing intentional. If Nico wanted to pass he could have tried, but he didn't," Hamilton noted.
Hamilton maintained the lead throughout the race to claim his 4th Chinese Grand Prix and the 35th win of his career. Reports indicate that Hamilton's tyre conservation strategy at the Chinese Grand Prix, which has been criticized by Rosenberg, was his way of avoiding rapid tyre degradation, which caused Mercedes to lose in Malaysia a few weeks ago.
Mercedes head of motorsports Toto Wolff has explained that there isn't any animosity between Rosenberg and Hamilton.
"Lewis did not do it on purpose. We have cleared that. There was not any intention from Lewis to slow Nico down to make him finish third, or worse. He knew he had to make the tyre run longer than it had run all weekend. So he decided to slow down in the way he did," he explained.
"It was good of Nico to complain and it was good of Lewis to slow down. Lewis had the car in the lead, he was in charge of the race," Wolff added.
Rosenberg finished in second place at the Chinese Grand Prix. He was closely followed by Sebastian Vettel, who came in third place.